It was mid-November last year that the Lovely Economy Of Wonder And Rapturous Joy (LEOWARJ) forced me to abandon my setup at SliceHost and announce that my site was going dark due to lack of funds. At that time you, my readers, rallied to my cause and donated money — enough to keep Ubersoft.net up and running for a little while, long enough for one of you kind readers to offer to host the site until it could get back on its feet.
Because you were all willing to do that, Ubersoft.net did not go dark, and I was able to continue publishing — but my publishing schedule was shot all to Hell due to various concerns like getting a job, getting money, paying bills, moving to a new state, and various other things that made comics-related activities difficult.
One year later things are much better… but they’re still not what they were. Here’s an update.
Site Finances
Ubersoft.net was somewhat profitable when it was hosted on Keenspot. It wasn’t profitable enough to support me, but it paid for itself with no problem. Since moving off on my own, however, I haven’t made a dime, and have in fact had to pay to keep it running. Last year my expenses were more than I could afford. This year I’m able to pay for my own hosting again, albeit not at the level that I would like (DreamHost is a fine service but I’d prefer to move back to SliceHost or to a similar dedicated host in the future). Still, I’m able to pay my “publication costs” again, so that’s a plus.
Help Desk
Help Desk has updated very sporadically over this year, with months where I was able to update about 70% of the time and months where I didn’t update at all. I know I have a reputation for spotty updates in general but this year was particularly bad. Things are clearing up on a number of fronts — the job is settling down, life is generally less chaotic than it has been and my daughter is sleeping through the night more consistently — so I’m making an effort to publish regularly. I’m told this gets easier over time.
Kernel Panic
At the beginning of 2009 I created a number of new strips for KP, and I still have about four that I haven’t published… because the one that comes next requires new drawing, and I was never able to devote the time I needed to try to work it out. Hope to in the coming weeks, but with NaNoWriMo coming up it may have to wait till December. Once I start up again my intent is to continue publishing once a week — a plan that has eluded me thus far, but I’ll keep trying.
Old Skool Webcomic
Since I only do this one when I’m overcome by random silliness, there’s not much to say here. I’ll update it here and there, whenever I feel like it.
PCtown
Yeah, remember this? Before I could continue with the story I needed to take the existing PCtown comics and move them into the new PCtown template. This should have been easy, but a few of the last comics needed some changes (different shading choices in the background, new drawings) which stopped me cold. I’m pleased to say those changes were made, however, and you should see them posted once a week starting this Tuesday, running through the first week of December, with new comics to follow. Since PCtown is much more drawing-intensive than the others, I don’t know how often I’ll update, but I hope to be able to manage one a week.
Will I manage to pull all this off? It’s pretty easy to say “no, I won’t” at this point. I don’t stick to schedules very well unless I’m being paid to do so, and comics aren’t my day job. That said, people who know me will probably agree that if there is a windmill, I must tilt.
Charge!
